Three books that get students thinking about kindness and connecting with others

The second graders are focusing on kindness for Picture Book Month. Today's theme was thinking about how we connect with others.

Today's read aloud books included: Why Am I Me? written by Paige Britt and illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko; We're All Wonders written and illustrated by R.J. Palacio; and, Be a Friend, written and illustrated by Salina Yoon. What follows is a bit about each of the books we read, along with the students' thinking after reading the book. This was a #heartmelt kind of day. 

We started with Why Am I Me?  I used the Elmo (document camera) to project and read on the whiteboard. This allowed students to both appreciate and read closely the paint and collage illustrations, which are beautiful, engaging, and thought-provoking. Qualls and Alko's art places Paige Britt's narrative in a space that readers can think and explore. Two young children silently share thoughts about their place in the world and eventually cross paths with the understanding that they are part of a bigger whole -- not you and me, but we. It's quietly deep and beautiful.

With the context of needing to recognize who we are before we can connect with others, the students shared their thinking about themselves on a poster. 

I was planning to leave the middle space, where the faces overlap, blank to talk about the "we" and finding commonalities and connections with others (which we did during our brief discussions), but forgot to let the students know. I am okay with this though because their comments about themselves show the commonalities and connections.

"I am a bundle of joy."

"I feel like a good dancer."

"I am a daughter."

Having thought about themselves and finding connections with others, we read the next book, We're All Wonders.  Told with with tenderness, this book's message is empowering and hopeful. Like the narrative, the art is both light and deep. Palacio's narrative and art offers readers insight into what it feels like to be different than those around you and to be teased because of it. We can read the body language, we know how this feels -- escaping into his helmet, our young boy reassures himself that the Earth is a place that is big enough for everyone and all of our differences. If we just look, we can see that we're all wonders. 

Thinking about others, the students shared how their classmates are wonders - what it is they see in each other.

With a sense of who we are and  how we see others, it was time to cement our connection with others. We read, Be a Friend, a book these students read in kindergarten. (These second graders shared strong memories of this book and started miming before I cracked the cover.) Yoon's story about seeing and being seen perfectly compliments the other books we read. Once again, an important message is handled with tenderness. The Mime Boy, who feels invisible, is finally noticed by Joy, a young girl who understands that friends don't need words to communicate. Yoon's appealing and engaging illustrations along with her use of the color red ensure that readers focus on what's important.  

The students were asked to think about how they show kindness - the things they say and do for each other. They could also illustrate acts of kindness on cards, like Salina Yoon's endpapers in the book.

How are you celebrating?

ReedALOUD: The Case for Loving

The fourth graders and I read The Case for Loving, written by Selina Alko and illustrated by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko. 

"This is the story of one brave family: Mildred Loving, Richard Perry Loving, and their three children. It is the story of how Mildred and Richard fell in love, and got married in Washington, D.C. But when they moved back to their hometown in Virginia, they were arrested (in dramatic fashion) for violating that state's laws against interracial marriage. The Lovings refused to allow their children to get the message that their parents' love was wrong and so they fought the unfair law, taking their case all the way to the Supreme Court and won!"

The Case for Loving is a well-written and empowering story made more powerful by beautiful and engaging illustrations. This books has many interesting layers -- Selina Alko and Sean Qualls are an interracial couple themselves and they collaborated on the art making it a marriage of a different kind. It's well worth it to read the notes at the end explaining their story and the marriage of their art. They also note that we are still fighting for marriage equality for all, which my students brought up before even reading the notes. The fight goes on!

Here is a peak at some of my favorite pages.

The occasional use of bold red type emphasizes important moments in the Lovings' story.

Alko's description of the community in which the Lovings grew up (Central Point, Virginia) captures its diversity in a way that the students could relate - "where people of every shade from the color of chamomile tea to summer midnight made their homes." 

The joy that Mildred felt is evident here.  

Selina and Sean have captured so much in body language, attire, and expression here.

Light, shadow, color, and expressions make this scene resonate.

The detail on the dresser is very cool, but also effectivly draws the eye toward Mildred's expression.

Again, effective use of color and style of print to emphasize the key ideas.

The diversity of the crowd protesting is important. The times they were a-changin'.

The story comes to a close where it began, with the Lovings happily back home in Virginia.

We had a powerful discussion after reading the story. The fourth graders are in the midst of a unit on the Civil Rights Movement, so this was a particularly fitting time to share this book. Part of the students' work is to put the events into a timeline and into a broader historical perspective. Last week we read Separate is Never Equal. Both of the books help the students to see how individual people can effect change as well as how individual states were slowly changing laws before the country as a whole.